Province announces additional support for 15,000 Nova Scotians with disabilities

The provincial government announced Thursday an additional income assistance of $300 per month for about 15,000 Nova Scotians with disabilities.

“This is an initiative to support people who have disabilities who aren’t currently supported under the Disability Support Program,” Community Services Minister Trevor Boudreau told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

“The remedy has been released and we’re working on that and while income assistance and supports in income assistance for people with disabilities isn’t included in the remedy, it was important to our department to support people who aren’t necessarily being supported in that sense.”

The remedy Boudreau referenced is the settlement agreement between the province and the Disability Rights coalition to rectify years of provincial government discrimination against Nova Scotians with disabilities. The agreement approved this summer stipulates, among other measures, the closure over the next five years of all institutions for people with disabilities.

A decision by Donald C. Murray, chairman of the independent human rights board of inquiry, outlined a five-year resolution process that began with a commitment by the province to institute a no new admissions policy to institutions funded by the Disability Support Program in the first year of the agreement, which began July 1.

By the third year, 75 per cent of people currently housed in adult residential centres, regional rehabilitation centres and residential care facilities will be living in community-based settings.

Within five years, by March 31, 2028, the government will close all institutional settings for people with disabilities.

Long road

The pathway leading to the settlement agreement and the board’s decision has been long and arduous, beginning with Joseph Delaney, Sheila Livingstone and Beth MacLean filing a complaint in 2014 with the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission that they were forced to live in locked wards at a Dartmouth psychiatric hospital for years despite medical opinions that they could be housed in the community.

Claire McNeil, a lawyer for the Disability Rights Coalition, told The Chronicle Herald earlier this month the discrimination was not limited to institutions, including psychiatric hospital wards.

“What we need is better access to community-based supports and services that’s timely, that are located in the communities in which people want to live and are accessible so that we bring an end to the gridlock that’s been a reality for this government department (Community Services) for decades,” McNeil said. “The government is now going to respond to people based on their specific needs.”

Eddie Bartnick and Tim Stainton, the international experts in disability who authored the Human Rights Review and Remedy for the Findings of Systemic Discrimination Against Nova Scotians with Disabilities in the coalition’s case against the government, describe the latest announcement as another important step forward for people with disabilities in Nova Scotia. They acknowledge that the new Income Assistance Disability Supplement is well aligned with the foundations of the remedy, in particular through supporting the broader population of people with disability beyond the Disability Support Program.

$53 million annually

Boudreau said Thursday about 63 per cent of people receiving assistance from the provincial Employment Support and Income Assistance program have a disability. 

“This announcement will support roughly 15,000 Nova Scotians who are on income assistance,” he said.

“There is actually a criteria that is used for being accepted into the Disability Support Program. If they don’t meet that criteria, they would definitely fall under this program.”

Eligibility for the new program will be recognized through existing medical documentation, and clients will begin receiving the increase automatically.

The new assistance stream, which represents an annual provincial investment of $53.3 million, will come on stream on April 1 and will align with other provinces in recognizing the higher cost of living with a disability and barriers to participating in the workforce.

The province is also acting to address the systemic discrimination remedy by:

• creating new positions in the Disability Support Program to help people living with disabilities navigate the available community resources;
• expanding and modernizing the technology used in the Disability Support Program; and 
• analyzing current addictions and mental health programs to determine how to better support people with intellectual and mental health disabilities living in community.